News Releases
8/6/07
LAWRENCE — Three decades after graduating from the University of Kansas with a doctorate in medicinal chemistry, Peter Ruenitz still values lessons learned at KU.
To show his gratitude, the former professor has established a gift as part of his estate plans to provide funds for KU’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy.
“I felt like it was the gateway to the career I had at the University of Georgia,” said Ruenitz, who in 2001 retired from teaching. “I left KU, I came to Georgia, and I originally didn’t think I’d be there that long. But in Kansas, the education I got enabled me to have that career. So I thought it would be appropriate for me to help out the Department of Medicinal Chemistry.”
Barbara Timmerman, chair of the department, said the gift will have a profound impact on the continued success of her fellow researchers and faculty members and students.
“Dr. Ruenitz has shown tremendous foresight in establishing this unrestricted deferred gift,” said Timmermann.
Ruenitz said he appreciated KU faculty members, including the late Edward Smissman. A distinguished professor, Smissman led the medicinal chemistry department from 1960 until his death in 1974.
“He had a great impact on my life as a grad student and, as it turned out, as a faculty member,” said Ruenitz, who earned his doctorate in 1974. “I remember some of the things that he did that guided me long after our active interaction as a graduate student and as a professor ended.”
And as the years went by, he valued what he had learned from his professors even more.
“It’s kind of like your parents,” Ruenitz said. “The older you get, the smarter they get. It turned out I found myself doing the same kind of things five, 10, 15 years later, that my professors did.”
Ruenitz also knows how important it is to have private support.
“You can get a lot of grant money, but support from private contributions can really be good,” Ruenitz said. “It can fit into some of the places where you can’t get support any other way. That’s kind of my driving force in making this gift.”
The gift will be managed by KU Endowment, an independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management organization for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment is the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.
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